Strawberry Matcha Éclairs

Well, since my Totoro puffs didn't turn out the way I imagined them to, I thought I would work on some éclairs instead. The good thing is, the choux dough recipe is the same (so refer back to the Totoro post), the only thing you do differently is how you pipe them out.

And you know what? You're supposed to use a star tip, but I couldn't find mine. It's probably at my parent's house - all my baking supplies are now split apart because my condo can't fit everything. But the éclairs turned out just fine with a round piping tip.

After the éclairs cool, cut them in half so that you have your elongated boats. If you made the choux dough correctly, the interiors should be semi-hollow.

It's strawberry season again (yay) so I chopped them up into tiny little cubes. Then sprinkled a teaspoon of sugar on it, gave it a toss, and had it macerate for a bit. It's sitting in a sieve so that any excess liquids can drain off.

Using tiny dessert spoons, I filled the with the strawberries I so painstakingly sliced.

Then came the fun part, decorating with matcha buttercream! I was originally going to make matcha pastry cream, but realized I finished using all the milk on the choux dough. Oops! Oh well, it worked out in the end as buttercream is so much easier to make and also pipes out beautifully.

Doesn't the smooth matcha buttercream look like avocado? In fact, these éclairs remind me of sub sandwiches or avocado toast. I know you're supposed to put the tops back on the éclairs . . . but they're so much prettier when they're like an open-faced sandwich!

You can also pipe the buttercream in first and then top it with strawberries. Don't forget to decorate! I had sprinkles and milk chocolate crispearls on hand. You can also switch out your piping tip for different designs.

Howard's colleagues are going to have a happy Monday eating these (I hope)! There's too many for Howard and I to finish. There's also a key lime pie in the freezer, but more about that later.

Vanilla Bean Cupcakes with Strawberry Frosting

It's almost Valentine's Day! Do you have any plans for tomorrow? I'm going to work... so the highlights will probably be my lunch date with friends and my dinner date with Howard.

Regardless if it were Valentine's Day or not, why not make something sweet and pink?

Vanilla Bean Cupcakes
(Makes about 20-22 cupcakes)

1 stick of unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups of granulated sugar
Seeds from one vanilla bean
4 large egg whites
1/4 cups of milk
2 1/4 cups of cake flour
1 tablespoon of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of salt
2 teaspoons of vanilla extract

1. Preheat the oven to 175°C (350°F) and have your liners ready in the cupcake tray.
2. Using a stand-mixer, cream the butter, sugar, and vanilla bean seeds together.
3. Meanwhile, use a hand-mixer to whisk the egg whites until soft peaks are formed. Slowly add in the milk. It will be light and frothy. Pour 1/3 of this mixture with the butter mixture along with the vanilla extract and mix until incorporate.
4. Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt together. Pour 1/3 into the butter mixture and incorporate. 
5. Alternate between adding the egg/milk and flour/baking powder/salt into the butter/sugar/vanilla bean mixture until they are all incorporated.
6. Use an ice cream scoop to evenly distribute the batter into the cupcake liners.
7. Bake for 20-22 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.
8. Let the cupcakes cool before frosting.

Strawberry Frosting
(Makes enough for 22 cupcakes)

1 1/2 sticks of unsalted butter
3 1/2 cups of confectioners' sugar
3 tablespoons of puréed and strained strawberries

1. Using a mixer, cream the butter and sugar until smooth. About 4-5 minutes.
2. If you're using fresh strawberries, cut off the stem and the leaves. Give the strawberries a wash and pat them dry with a paper tower. 
3. Purée the strawberries and strain them through a sieve to separate the seeds. If you look at the photo above, we made about 1 cup, but you only need 3 tablespoons - otherwise the frosting's consistency will be too runny.
4. Add the seedless purée and mix until incorporated.
5. Fill your piping bag or use a metal spatula to frost your cooled cupcakes.

The strawberry frosting doesn't have a strong strawberry flavour, but it is there. We couldn't add anymore strawberry purée because the frosting would have been too runny. I think the solution is to use really ripe strawberries (so plan ahead) or to maybe boil it down so that some of the water content evaporates?

And if you want the frosting to have a stronger pink colour, you'll have to add some food colouring to it. We kept the pale pink since we didn't want to add any other chemicals to it. Seriously, strawberry frosting is a tough one to figure out. Do bakeries use strawberry extract to get a stronger flavour?

Overall, the strawberry frosting works with these light and airy vanilla cupcakes. The cupcakes are really soft and fluffy! Adding vanilla beans make it taste so much better, but I'll probably use less sugar next time.

Woof! I couldn't resist.

Yellow Cakes

Happy long weekend everyone! We're pretty ecstatic to have a break. Work has been kind of crazy for me - but in a good way. New projects and things to learn. Howard and I also have a wedding to attend next week. So it'll be another short week as we've taken a day off to help out. Stay tuned to see how we churn out 200 cupcakes and a square cake to go on top of the cupcake tower!

I hope you're out enjoying the nice weather, it's pretty rare here in Toronto. In fact, this is the first time this year that I've busted out shorts and a T-shirt. No cardigan or shawl required! This is nice...

Oh and I learned something new last night. Hershey's Chipits pure white chocolate baking chips are not easy to melt over a double boiler. And whatever you do, don't listen to the instructions on the bag. It says to melt a cup of white chocolate chips in the microwave for two minutes. Two! I thought it was too high and tried one minute and now I can tell you from experience that it will burn, turn black, and bubble before it hits the one minute mark. I'm still having nightmares about it. Every time I use my microwave, I can still smell burnt white chocolate.

Thank you to those who heard my cries of help on twitter, your advices were all very helpful!

Despite that mishap, I tried a new cake recipe today and for the first time, baked it sheet style. I will admit, I need more practice making cakes. I find them so much harder to make compared to my beloved cupcakes.

Does anyone know why yellow cake is called yellow cake? It doesn't have a "yellow" flavour, so why isn't it just called a vanilla cake?

Yellow Cake

From Confetti Cakes for Kids

(Makes about three sheets of 1 x 9 x 13)

2 3/4 cups of all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon of baking powder

2 sticks of unsalted butter

2 cups of granulated sugar

1 1/2 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract

4 eggs

1 cup of milk

1. Preheat your oven to 177°C (350°F) and line the bottom of your pans with parchment paper.
2. Using a mixer, combine the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
3. On a low speed, add the vanilla, and the eggs, one at a time.
4. Sift together the flour and baking powder.
5. Alternate adding the flour/baking powder and milk in three batches.
6. Mix until well combined on medium speed.
7. Divide your batter evenly and bake for 30 to 45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
8. Remember to allow the cakes to cool before releasing them from the pans, about 20 to 30 minutes.
9. Flip the cakes over onto another pan or cake board. Peel away the parchment paper.
10. Yellow cake basically goes with any frosting flavour, so whip up your favourite one.

I trimmed out two cakes from the sheets, one 5 x 5 inches and one 5 x 4 inches. I love how I was able to get the thin layers of cake this way. It beats using a cake leveler!

The square cake was frosted with chocolate buttercream, iced with chocolate ganache, and topped with strawberries. My mom said in horror "chocolate and more chocolate?" Yes. =)

The rectangle cake was frosted with lime buttercream, something my parents can handle. This was piped on in logs and I didn't cover the sides. The citrus kick is making this weekend feel summery. Cheers!

Yikes, it just occurred to me... there are two cakes in front of me and six days before our friend's wedding. It's very likely that I'll be holding my breath when I put on my dress for their big day.

So how have you been doing? If you're a new visitor to my blog, welcome! I recently noticed that we now have over 900 likes on facebook and over 1,500 followers on twitter. That is pretty awesome! Thank you for staying in touch with us online, and please don't be shy, say hello or ask us a question if something on our blog isn't clear. =)

Neil's Pancakes

When Pancake Month (February) and Pancake Tuesday (March 8th, 2011) went by, I saw lots of pancakes posts and I developed a serious craving for some. Especially ones with chocolate chips.

So this morning, my brother and I made some following Neil's recipe from the Clinton St. Baking Company Cookbook.

My brother was responsible for separating the egg yolks from the egg whites. Let's just say that I gave him an A- for his work. He ended up using one more egg than what the recipe asked for because he accidentally dropped one. That's okay, I did a tweak by using less butter.

The egg whites needed to be whipped to "medium" peaks and folded into the batter.

I added semi-sweet chocolate chips when the batter was in the pan. (Some of my family members didn't want the addition.)

My brother was really good at flipping the pancakes! I am quite impressed with his skills after a few years living at residence. He was even comparing our batter to the one his roommate makes!

These pancakes are very light, fluffy, and very filling. Two per person was the maximum anyone in my household could eat. The recipe estimates about 18-20 three-inch pancakes. We made 15 four-five inch pancakes and ate only eight! It wasn't that we didn't want to eat them!

Which brings to mind a childhood story... when I was in kindergarten, I made the mistake of telling my Dad that I could eat pancakes everyday. Being the crafty one he is, my Dad made me pancakes for breakfast - every single day.

I think I lasted about two weeks before I had to tell him to stop. No more pancakes for breakfast! I don't think I touched a pancake until I started University. Thanks Dad for your lovely life lessons.